Daily News | Philly’s Art McNally was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The referee tells stories about the enshrined
A family party could fill Brian O’Hara’s South Jersey home as his extended family totaled near 25 people. And the attention in his crowded house in Burlington Township always seemed focused on the same person: his father-in-law.
“We’d be spellbound. We could just listen to him for hours,” O’Hara said. “He’d be telling his stories and he’d be like ‘OK. One more.’”McNally’s officiating career started overseas as a U.S. Marine during World War II. He graduated from Roman Catholic High as a 17-year-old in 1943, left three days later for basic training at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, and was soon on a boat to Japan.
He went on to high school and semipro games before moving to college football. McNally also picked up basketball assignments, starting with a South Philly church league, before reaching the NBA. And he nearly moved to Florida to start a career as a minor-league baseball umpire with big-league aspirations.
“Van Brocklin is yelling at him and cursing and cursing and moving toward him. He’s yelling and waving and saying, ‘You did this and that and this and that.’ He stops and takes a breath and Art says, ‘Alright. Are you done?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ Art ran back out and got the game ready to play. He said, ‘I let him have his say. I let him say whatever he wanted. Just don’t show me up.
Mickey Heinecken, a football star at Central and the University of Delaware who went on to a 28-year coaching career at Middlebury College, saw McNally as a mentor. “But [Eagles owner] Leonard Tose was paying the fines,” said the younger McNally, who met Vermeil at this month’s Super Bowl when the Hall of Fame announced that his father and the former Eagles head coach were being inducted. “Then the office said Leonard Tose can’t pay the fines anymore. You have to pay for them yourself.”
McNally helped implement two rule changes in 1978 — illegal contact for defensive backs after 5 yards and allowing offensive lineman to block with their hands — that generated more offense and modernized the NFL. In 1985, he introduced instant replay for reviewing calls. McNally’s number was listed in the phone book and he would talk to whoever wanted him as long as they weren’t profane. He’d explain the rule and some of the callers — like that barber from Chicago — became regulars.
He refereed in the Lombardi era, was on the phone with the officials who ruled the Immaculate Reception, and was in the press box observing the crew who decided the Tuck Rule. His 48 seasons in the NFL spanned from Bart Starr and Lombardi to Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
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